Planting Seeds - Cultivating a Relationship with Christ

 Lent is a desert season in faith.  I often write about the necessity of the desert metaphor in refining our soul and humbling us towards God's will, and the abundant life of Christ.  Lent is a time of deep rejection where the roots of our faith take root.  It does not take a lot of faith to sow love in Christ, he tells us it takes the faith of a mustard seed - the smallest of the seeds to cultivate a relationship with the Father.  It is one thing to plant a seed and another for it to grow beyond the bulb and shoots, into something as sturdy as an olive tree, ancient as a life oak and resilience as Ponderosa Pine.

Have you ever been so moved by passion for an activity or venture that you put every fiber of your being into it before you find you are burnt out, your energy is spent and you cannot stand the task you once loved anymore...you shrivel up and give up the seed.  I have done this with jobs before because I have a strong work ethic and want to offer service and support but when my services are taken advantage of, or I've worked myself to the bone without rest - I am so overwhelmed I don't want to continue on that journey.  I am often too stubborn to stop and that of course leads to resentment.

A Christian life needs to be planted in love and patience.  You need to be eager and daring, ready and willing, but you also need to cultivate the relationship and growth slowly and with pure intention, savor each lesson of faith, apply it to your life, be willing to faith and to doubt, but come back willingly to God.  A Ponderosa survives the wrath of a pine beetle by self defense and staying healthy - sun, water and nurturing awareness of its environment.  A mustard seed grows into something strong because it develops strength from weakness, a willingness to learn, to be humble to trust.

 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you. Luke 17:6

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

 

Sometimes faith is recognizing our doubt and crying out to the LORD for nourishment.  The Israelites wandered in the desert complaining about the lack, when in truth's God's provision was always before them in Manna and water at Meribah did spring forth.  God knows our limits, but his love through Christ is limitless and his paths always make our crooked feet straight, if we ask and trust.  He commands us to use reason and faith, meaning there are times we allow our personal desires to interfere with discernment of God's will - so he wants us to think - to engage - to question and to come to him as little children - questions and fears, hope and shelter, love and wonder.  Think of Abraham, Sarah, Leah, Rachel, Moses, Elijah - they are people of faith who prayed their doubts and God helped them have more faith - Jesus loves us - his love moves mountains - more importantly HIS love can give us the power to climb them in pursuit of serving HIS will.

When you doubt - pray to Jesus - explain for fears and ask for faith.  Jesus wants a relationship with us.  We have free will so he cannot force us to accept the nurturing care of His Spirit and counsel, but if we ask - his mercy is given.  We must trust in tests and trials as the fire to heal the spirit, for while the body may ache if the soul remains planted in Christ - you wills survive the fire.  I turn again to a Ponderosa because the Ponderosa is a tree plagued by fire, yet it lets go of its trunk in the flames, faithfully releasing seeds, in the promise they will grow into another stronger forest.  An Aspen is rooted to an entire network, if one tree falls they all break, but the system remains a community of strength in the fire.  The church must be a quaking aspen - a community in which each member of the body might be a sinner, but is healed in the love of Christ and each community member is in relationship with others - helping and lifting up.

Christ wants us to seek HIS Kingdom, but HIS kingdom is not only about a free pass to heaven  - it is about learning to live well on earth - living well is being in fellowship and good communion with humanity and the natural environment - acting in love and not with selfish intent, sacrificing your desires for the needs of the other.

In scripture we are shown in the Gospels the need of our healing action in Christ's ministry - even Jesus - God incarnate, needed man to help him carry the burden of the cross as he trudged faithfully to Cavalry - he allowed himself to be humbled on earth so that we might serve him in the humility and learn to show empathy for our fellow man.  Bishop Michael Curry says the antithesis of love is not hate, but selfishness.

Think about planting again...you have a garden - if you only tend for one plant it might shoot up and grow strong for a while, but if the rest of the garden dies (a farm is an even better example) the soil is tattered and life fails.  We must choose live in active ministry and love.  We must listen to God's will in the Holy Spirit and pray for intution.

In Lent it is easy to focus only on the suffering - suffering is horrible - suffering is something that tears at the soul, makes us question our faith and humanity and give up.  Remember suffering yield joy in the risen Christ, suffering also refines our faith - not because enduring suffering is right - but because in our humility we turn to God.  The lesson in suffering is not to get stuck in quicksand paralyzed by fear, but in courage reach out in prayer to God - the Trinity will guide you.  Sometimes their rescue attempts and highway signs might confuse us because we don't want life to go in a certain direction - it is then we need to joyfully accept suffering because God is leading us through fire to become stronger and able to serve him.  God is only love - any suffering we endure is not from God's hand but the condition of evil, yet even in darkness, God's light is a beacon that teaches and guides and helps heal wounds in all time and place. 

The Parable of the Sower - Mark 4

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”